Heaven and Earth (Samurai Movie)

A random post on the Feudal Japanese Miniature Wargaming Facebook group helped me find this 1990 Samurai epic. I rented the DVD many many years ago but have never been able to find it since. Mostly because in 1993 Oliver Stone also released a movie of the same title.

So Sunday lunch was spent watching this extremely colourful retelling of the struggle between Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin over Shinano province that resultd in the five battles of  Kawanakajima.

There's also an Osprey about the campaigns. 

Hyena Road

Finally got a copy of this during a family shopping excursion to a nearby large mall and watched it this morning while taking my morning two cups of tea.
I've been wanting to see it ever since the LAV roared out of the screen at me during the trailer I saw two years ago.

Wow.

I wasn't disappointed after the waiting.

Wow.

Did I say that already?

The costuming and effects were really good. Getting the Canadian Armed Forces to help and shooting a lot of footage actually in Afghanistan helped too I'm sure.

The story centers on a sniper detachment from the I&R platoon and an Intelligence Captain to try and explore the complexity of the war.

The Captain tries to explain a local VIP to the sniper:
"On Tuesdays and Thursdays he's with us. On Mondays and Wednesdays he's with the Taliban. On his off days he's selling narcotics."

Naturally things go sideways and plans fall apart.

But there's lots of good action and scenario ideas for the tabletop. Naturally I find myself wanting to add a 4 man sniper detachment in soft hats like in the opening scene and firefight.

Highly recommended. I have been told you can rent it from YouTube.

The Geek Awakens

Daughter No. 2 and I went to see Star Wars today.
In 3-D.
To my surprise, I found the experience quite enjoyable.

I'm not one of those folks who was posting "Ermagherd!!!! Star Wars!!!!" On Facebook in the lead up to the release.
In fact I found it all exceedingly tiresome.

Between Episodes 1 thru 3, Ewoks, what J.J. Abrams did to Star Trek and what Peter Jackson did to The Hobbit, I was prepared to be disappointed and my enthusiasm wasn't just lacking, it had taken a bus out of town.

But The Force Awakens hit all the notes we loved in A New Hope;  epic, space opera action with enough humour to keep it light, but not enough to make us wretch into our popcorn and wonder where Jar Jar is. The plot also was not just a mash up of disjointed action scenes and characters lacking in motivation, leaving the audience wondering "what the F*ck?"

The homage shots were nicely done without being heavy handed. I didn't cry when Han died. I felt it was making a nice hand over to the new characters so they can carry the story forward. Although the Bad Guy isn't quite as imposing as Darth Vader. I can't even remember his name.

I do hope that this new champion of the Dark Side isn't motivated by teen angst like Annikin though.

I also found the 3D not bad either. Most of the time it just gave some depth to the scene without being all "hey! We're in 3D kids!". I don't know if this is from a technological change or maturation in how it is being used by the director.

This all gives me hope though that I won't need to hand in my Geek card just yet.

The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies

Daughter number two took me to this today. We caught one of the 2D showings.

Since I was prepared by the first two instalments I managed to have fun this time. "Five Armies" picks up right where "Desolation" leaves off and it's a lot of action until the credits, except for the middle bit with Thorin glowering from behind his wall and everyone argues about the gold.

Galadriel's smack-down of Sauron is pretty cool. The portrayal of Dain Ironfoot is also a lot of fun. The giant worms giving the goblins of Gundabad a hidden route of approach to the battle space was fairly weird though. The battle was well done even if it didn't follow the novel and at least Beorn shows up to thrash goblins. The tie in with LOTR was a bit heavy handed. Peter Jackson still got all the important bits to happen though, even including Bilbo returning mid-auction.

So it was silly good fun and not as distressing as the first two.

The Hobbit 2: the Desolation of Canon

Daughter No. 2 had a bit of cabin fever during our Christmas holidays, so she suggested a delightful father-daughter movie matinee (we hadn't had one since her 5th birthday when I took her to see Disney's Hercules)to take in the second installment of Peter Jackson's latest epic, of The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug. Long time followers of this blog will know I am a complete and total hobbit-head. I would spend lottery winnings (should I ever get any) building a hobbit hole to live in. I think Tolkien is the greatest writer of the 20th century (as stated here). I really like the idea of second breakfast and try to have it as often as possible.

So last year I was rather disappointed by the first installment of the 3D Hi-Def thrill ride that has become the Hobbit. Of course, that movie was operating under the terrible burden of anticipation of a frothing fan who had been looking forward to it since he was maybe 12. Mrs. Rabbitman, with much lower expectations, was pleasantly surprised. I did see part 1 again later in the year, in 2D with no-Def and actually enjoyed it.

So this year I was resolved to get out and see part 2, before the 2D regular definition viewings were gone. Part 1 of course pre-warned me to Jackson's vision, so I sat back with a big bag of popcorn and just enjoyed the over-the-top, adrenaline fueled, thrill ride that only bears a passing resemblance to the beloved book.

Sadly I think all the deviations from the book added too much padding and took film time away from some parts that I really quite liked (such as Bilbo's teasing of the spiders). The fight with the spiders, cut short, the sojourn at Beorn's homestead, also cut short, the search for the door and waiting for Durin's Day, cut short,... everything just jammed together so we can have Tauriel the elf archer girl, the barrel chase scene (which I have to admit did give me a few laughs), a fight with Orcs in Laketown and Thorin and Company fighting Smaug in the caverns of the Lonely Mountain.

There were a lot of WTF? moments.

I did like the barrel chase scene, and Stephen Fry as the Master of Laketown was brilliant as usual.. I also liked the extra depth given to Bard. The whole political conflict added to Laketown was interesting too.

This fake movie poster from Cracked.com kind of sums up how I feel:

So I have rather mixed feelings. I will get the boxed, extended DVD set, if only to view the making of documentaries, because Peter has a lot of 'splainin' to do.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Disappointment. A Review

Well I finally got out to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey today with Mrs. Rabbitman.

I have been looking forward to this movie for years and hoping, like many hobbitheads, that Jackson would take the project on after he finished with Lord of the Rings.

I just wanted a single fun movie, as well done as LOTR. That's all. It's a pretty simple tale, so one 3 hour movie is all you'd need right?

Then rumours came out about it being turned into two movies and I started to worry. Then I heard about the 3D and HFR (High Frame Rate) and got really worried. Would a good tale be lost in the movie tech?

I just wanted to see it in 2D at the normal speed, thanyouverymuch, we don't need anysillinessaroundhere! Plus I already wear eyeglasses, I didn't want to put 3D glasses overtop.

Alas it was not to be. The conventional screenings were limited and by the time my calendar cleared enough to go they had dried up. 3D HFR it was going to be.

My feelings after seeing it are a hearty Meh.

I liked the way they did the dwarves (although Thorin's beard was not long enough). I didn't mind the expansion of Radagast from a footnote to a comic character. Freeman's Bilbo was pretty good too. The treatment of the Necromancer, Saruman's duplicity and the poisoning of Mirkwood were well done.

I found however that there were too many scenes where they were showing off the 3D (do we need a panoramic shot of Bilbo running across Hobbiton?) and the HFR made everything look fake.

When I watch The Lord of the Rings on DVD (the extended director's cut of course) on my old TV, I get lost in Middle Earth. While watching The Hobbit I was constantly reminded that I was watching actors on a cheap set. During the scenes in Bag End I kept expecting an Ikea salesman to come on scene and make his pitch! And the scenes in Rivendell during the White Council just looked like a stage set for a BBC television production. In too many shots the layers were too obvious.

I also got tired of our heroes sliding about on out of control platforms and crashing from great heights onto rocks without getting hurt. Once is OK, but don't over do the gag. And then after all that Thorin gets cuffed by a warg and is mortally wounded? Really? REALLY? C'mon, he's tougher than that!

And what was up with the Goblin King's rather mellow voice? Had he gone to Eton? Was it Stephen Frye?

I guess I'll live with my disappointment. I will still buy the extended DVD when it comes out and see the next two installments. But it's not anywhere near as good as LOTR.

A very good movie got lost behind all the technology. Very disappointed.